salep

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French salep, from Turkish salep, from Arabic سَحْلَب (saḥlab, “type of orchid”). According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the Arabic word is said to be a contraction of خُصَى الثَعْلَب (ḵuṣā aṯ-ṯaʕlab, “fox testicles”) (الثَعْلَب (aṯ-ṯaʕlab, “fox”) + خُصًى (ḵuṣan, “testicles”)), referring to the testicle-like root tubers.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsæləp/
• Hyphenation: sa‧lep

Noun

salep (countable and uncountable, plural saleps)

1. A starch or jelly made out of plants in the Orchidaceae family, such as the early-purple orchid ().
   • 1800, Erasmus Darwin, “Sect. XI. Of Draining and Watering Lands.”, in Phytologia: Or The Philosophy of Agricuture and Gardening. With the Theory of Draining Morasses and with an Improved Construction of the Drill Plough, Dublin: Printed for P. Byrne, 108, Grafton-Street, →OCLC, section XI.2.4.5, page 245:

     Where finally the draining of marſhy grounds can not be effected at a reſponſible expence, ſome plants may perhaps be cultivated with profit to the cultivator; as in ſome ſituations the feſtica fluitans, floating feſcue, callitriche, ſtar-graſs; or in others the orchis for the purpoſe of making ſaloop by drying the peeled roots in an oven.

   • 2014 April 5, “Quite interesting: A quietly intriguing column from the brains behind QI, the BBC quiz show. This week; QI orchids you not”, in The Daily Telegraph (Weekend), page W22:

     The tubers of one [orchid] species, , produce a flour called salep, which was made into a drink known as "saloop" in 18th-century London, as an alternative to coffee (Charles Lamb thought it the ideal breakfast for chimney sweeps). Salep is a Turkish word with an even more precise derivation (it's from the Arabic for "fox's testicles"). Despite this, the Turks still use it to make a strange elastic ice cream, eaten with a knife and fork, which carries a pungent aftertaste compared by one commentator to the scent of "goats on a rainy day". Salep ice cream is so popular that O. mascula is now a protected species in Turkey.

Alternative forms

• saloop
• salop

Related terms

• saloop (“aromatic drink originally made with salep”)

Further reading

• salep on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• ALSEP, ELSPA, Lapes, Leaps, Pales, Peals, Slape, e-pals, lapse, leaps, lepas, pales, peals, pleas, sepal, slape, spale